Quality assessment looking at rivaroxaban for cancer-related thrombosis

Dr Soff talks to ecancertv at ASH 2015 about a quality assessment initiative that looked at the use of the oral anticoagulant rivaroxaban for treating cancer-related thrombosis.
The current standard of care for treating patients with cancer who develop venous thromboembolism (VTE) is injected low molecular weight heparin. Rivaroxaban has been approved in the United States for the treatment for VTE since the end of 2012 but clinical trials did not specifically look at its use in cancer patients, Dr Soff explains in the interview.
It was therefore decided to take a look at patients being treated with rivaroxaban for VTE according to the product’s label and make note of which of these patients also had cancer and what effects could be seen.
The risk of major bleeding, which is always a concern with anticoagulant therapy, was found to be low (1.6% of patients) and recurrent thrombosis occurred in 4.4% of patients.
A randomized trial is the optimal approach to establish non-inferiority or superiority of rivaroxaban to LMWH for cancer-associated thrombosis but results of the quality assessment provide guidance and reassurance for rivaroxaban use in cancer patients.